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Family learns of daughter’s rape by monk over social media

May 18, 2018

In August 2017, a 46-year-old monk who was teaching at a Mon Literature summer school in Lawka Thukha Monastery in Kwan Hlar village, Mudon Township in Mon State, repeatedly raped a nine-year-old student who was studying at the school. The monk’s nephew saw his uncle, the monk, rape the girl and he made a video recording which he shared with his friends.

The girl’s grandmother explained that, “she was raped about ten months ago, but the video started spreading among the children in April. I heard some people say that the girl in the video was my granddaughter. On April 19th, I got some children to show me the video and I saw that the girl was my granddaughter.”

According to a relative of the girl, the video clip had spread on social media. Apparently after the incident the perpetrator fled from the village. The relative added that, “according to the video clip the monk committed the rape systematically. There were five students in the monastery. The monk put on a movie for the others to watch to distract them. Then the monk covered the girl with his robes and raped her. She was raped twice by that monk.”

After the grandmother saw the video clip, she reported the incident to a monk from Pinekamar village monastery, who is also the chairman of Mudon Township Monk Association. On May 15th 2018, the township Monk Association, the township administrator, the police, and the monks held a meeting to discuss the case.

“This incident has caused a lot of damage to the Buddha. At the meeting, we decided that he cannot be a monk anymore. We haven’t found him yet. We asked village administrators and police to investigate and help us find him. They will inform us if they have any news about the perpetrator,” said the chairman of the Mudon Township Monk Association.

The girl’s grandmother explained, “a girl’s life was destroyed. Even if she gets 10 million or 20 million kyat (US $7412.87 or $14,825.75) as compensation that cannot make her life any better. We will only be satisfied if the perpetrator is punished for his crime. My granddaughter was not the only girl to be sexually abused by that monk; another girl from the village was also abused by him but no one dares to talk about it as they don’t have evidence.”

U Myo, a relative of the girl, stated, “We can’t ask her about the incident because she starts crying as soon as we start talking about it. She won’t answer our questions about it. She seems fine and plays with her friends so long as no one asks her about the rape. She never told us what happened. Before the rape she was fine, but it looks like she has been mentally scarred by what happened.”